In contrast to oceanic lithosphere, which exists at Earth's surface for approximately 200 million years before subducting into the mantle, continental lithosphere may remain at the surface for billions of years after formation.
According to the latter hypothesis, Earth's surface, or lithosphere, is composed of a number of large, rigid plates that float on a soft (presumably partially molten) layer of the mantle known as the asthenosphere.
Yet, today's state of the asymmetry between coded information and its physical effects is epitomized by electrons passing through digital microprocessors that effectively steer material and energetic flows within a technosphere spanning the globe from satellite orbits 40,000km above the Earth's surface to 10km into the lithosphere.
These responses include linear or torsional horizontal movements (such as continental drift) and vertical subsidence and uplift of the lithosphere (strain) in response to natural stresses on Earth's surface such as the weight of mountains, lakes, and glaciers.
The Earth's surface acts as a diffusive boundary that separates the atmosphere from the lithosphere, resulting in a global topography determined by the interaction of tectonic and climatic processes.
We also collaborate on tectonic problems with faculty from Lithosphere and Surface Processes, Geochemistry and Atmosphere, Oceans, Climate Dynamics.
The present results are based on numerical simulations that combine thermochemical convection in the mantle, flexure of the lithosphere and surface processes of erosion and sedimentation.
Plate tectonics, theory dealing with the dynamics of Earth's outer shell the lithosphere that revolutionized Earth sciences by providing a uniform context for understanding mountain-building processes, volcanoes, and earthquakes as well as the evolution of Earth's surface and reconstructing its past continents and oceans.
Identifying the dominant controls on Earth's surface topography is of critical importance to understanding both the short- and long-term evolution of geological processes and past- and present-day dynamics of Earth's coupled mantle lithosphere system.
In a wide range of geological settings, carrier gases (CO2, CH4 etc). in the lithosphere may play a dominant role for no-diffusive transport and redistribution of trace gases (Rn, He and H2) toward the Earth's surface.
The cycle consists of large annual exchanges between the carbon reservoirs of the atmosphere, the land biosphere, the lithosphere (the rocky surface layer of the planet) and the ocean.
